ASAP

American Society for Action on Pain

"Skip Baker demonstrates the amount of weight he lost because of
severe, untreated chronic pain. He went without eating for 14 months, while the State of
Virginia was deciding if he would be an "authorized pain patient," and get an
increase in his pain medication. He averaged a one inch loss around the middle per month,
for a total of 14 inches for the 14 months! This is like torture for a State to do this to
a Pain Patient, who they knew all along, has Ankylosing Spondylitis," a VERY painful
spinal disease.

"The decision to make him an 'authorized'
pain patient could have been made in one hour by a good pain specialist, if this system
wasn't in place in Virginia.

Skip Baker is President of ASAP and he would like you to join him in the
campaign for sensible pain treatment. You can contact him at: skipb@widomaker.com or see our President's Page.

Understanding The Issues

In order to understand how we got to the present problems with pain management in the
US, it is necessary to understand basic facts about heroin, the opiates, and the history
of our laws and policies regarding these drugs. The best overall view of this issue, in
our opinion, comes from the first section of the Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs.
We recommend the following chapters as basic to the understanding of how we got to the
current problems with pain patients.

Deadly Morals, By Katherine Eban
Finkelstein - The DEA is busting doctors for prescribing drugs and patients are dying in
pain.

The Police State of Medicine by Dr. William
Hurwitz -- Dr. Hurwitz is the doctor who was featured on 60 Minutes because he was
persecuted for treating patients with severe chronic pain. He is one of the heroes
of our time.

Summary:. Existing law, the Intractable Pain Treatment Act, authorizes
a physician and surgeon to prescribe or administer controlled substances to a person in
the course of treating that person for a diagnosed condition called intractable pain, and
prohibits the Medical Board of California from disciplining a physician and surgeon for
this action. This bill would establish the Pain Patient's Bill of Rights and would state
legislative findings and declarations regarding the value of opiate drugs to persons
suffering from severe chronic intractable pain. It would, among other things, authorize a
physician to refuse to prescribe opiate medication for a patient who requests the
treatment for severe chronic intractable pain, require the physician to inform the patient
that there are physicians who specialize in the treatment of severe chronic intractable
pain with methods that include the use of opiates, and authorize a physician who
prescribes opiates to prescribe a dosage deemed medically necessary.

The Tragedy of Needless Pain by Ronald Melzack -- Scientific
American February 1990 Volume 262 Number 2 -- Contrary to popular belief, the author says,
morphine taken solely to control pain is not addictive. Yet patients worldwide continue to
be undertreated and to suffer unnecessary agony

The Painful Dilemma -- The Use of Narcotics for the Treatment
of Chronic Pain, A report prepared by the Sacramento-El Dorado Medical Society ad hoc
committee on the treatment of pain, 1990